Sunday and Monday in Guangzhou

Hello!
I'm writing on Monday afternoon, 3pm our time.  We just tried to do "nap time" with Cora, and for the first time, she wasn't having it.  She is starting to assert herself more - choosing what she wants to eat, choosing her clothes in the morning, and crying when she decided that 3pm was not a good time for napping!    At first she would pretty much eat anything we gave her, but now she is picking out the vegetables - I think we might have another Sophie on our hands.  We had noodle soup last night, and she thought it was really funny to pick out the carrots, and give them to us.  Also pick out the cabbage from the spring rolls.  Oh, and she decided to wear her long sleeve pajama top this morning, even though it's 95 degrees.  But it's great to see her becoming comfortable and doing regular 5 yr old things!  Of course we are totally spoiling her, and caved on the napping.   Time enough for that stuff when we are home.

We did the Safari Park on Sunday.   Just James, Sophie, Cora and I, and our guide Richard.  It was a cool place!  We got to ride the train around in the open - ish safari area.  You could also drive your car through it you wanted.  Cora made a few scared faces when she first saw the animals, but then was big smiles!  It's a pretty huge zoo, and was very nice.  Has a waterpark, a circus, an alligator part, and a few other extras.  You could spend like 2 days there to see it all.   But since it was hot as hell, we thought about 4 hours was enough.  And of course there are about a bazillion people there.  We actually didn't see any other Westerners the whole time?  That was kind of strange now that I think about it.  Cora walked almost the whole time, and is a total trooper.  She is a super fast walker, and i kept thinking she must be exhausted?  Sophie complained quite a bit at the end, as she was dying of heat.  But she also did fairly well with it.  Toward the end Cora was wanting me to hold her, which I loved, of course.  Even though she's 38 lbs, I still love to hold her as much as I can :)

We were beat when we got back, so we just hung out in the room and played until dinner.  We ended up going to a Thai restaurant, called Banana Leaf.  Man, it was crazy!!  Super busy, and there were these dancers/singers performing around the dining room.   I can not imagine what Cora thought - it was over stimulation even for us!  But the food was awesome, and the kids took it all in.  Our friends' kids went up and danced with them for a while - Cora and Sophie just watched from the sidelines, and it was all good.

Oh, Cora has discovered the stroller, and is obsessed.  Our friends had one for their 3 1/2 yr old, and we thought we'd try it with her for the long walks.  I thought for sure she'd be like, "no way!", cause she is pretty independent, but nope.  She LOVES it!  She never got to do the stroller, and we're giving her the full princess treatment with it.  Carrying her up and down stairs and the whole bit.  Pretty funny.

Today I went swimming on my own in the morning for a workout.  I told Cora with the google translator that i was going out, and would come back.  Don't know if she understood, but either way, she was totally fine with James and Sophie.  So I was happy about that!   Then we did breakfast, and met our guide for some shopping.  We hit the Pearl Market, then Shaiman Island - many adoptive families stay on the island.  It's really quiet, lots of tree lined streets and european architecture.  It's pretty cool!  And then lots of shopping for souvenirs and stuff.  We did our duty, and bought a bunch of stuff we probably will never use, and some gifts.  But it was fun!  And then we hit the electronics market on the way back.  You would not believe the volume of phone and tablet accessories in one square block.  Kind of crazy, all knock offs, and super cheap.

James and Cora are doing playdoh right now, sophie is "tableting".  I think we'll go hit the pool in a bit.

It almost feels like just normal life, except we are living in a hotel.  Oh, and Cora can't understand what we are saying!  I wish she'd start talking more, but I know that will come.  She just laughs and laughs, and does funny things all the time.  She loves to look at the photo albums, though and will point to us and say our names.

Tomorrow we have the Consulate appointment at 10:30am.  And then the afternoon free.  Wednesday is a free day, and Thursday fly home!!

See you all soon!!

Aaaahhh....luxury in Guangzhou!

We arrived in Guangzho on Friday night.  GZ is the city where the US Consulate is (the one that processes the visas for adopted kids, at least).  It's the final stop, and most important, as we have our final appointment, where they give her her immigration which will and make her a US Citizen.  I guess she will "officially" be a US Citizen the moment she steps on US soil.  So it's a big deal and all adoptive families have to come through this city.

We spent our last day in Hefei just packing, really.  It took a long time, and even though we had the AC cranked, we were still hot.  I decided I needed to have my workout clothes on for the task!  Our flight left at 4pm, and we left the hotel at I think about 1pm.  Our guide, Erin, handed out the kids' passports once we got on the bus.  It's a Chinese passport, but she will get the US Visa stamp after our consulate appt, like I said.  Nothing too eventful happened on the travel.  Well except our flight was delayed, and then we had to sit on the runway for an hour - UGH!!  So I don't think we got in the air until 6pm, landed at 7:20.  Oh, James said note to self - do not put newly adopted, apt to melt down child, in a sequined tank top when you go to the airport for her first flight.  Meltdown ensued after going through security, and James got all scratched up by the sequins trying to hold on to her.  Again, separation anxiety from her friend Emily, who was on the bus with us, and behind us in security.  Luckily, Emily and her family were on a different flight, and will be going to a different hotel.

I'm now writing on Saturday night, 9:30 pm.  Guangzho seems really cool so far, and we are loving our hotel!  It's quite an upgrade from the holiday inn in Hefei.  Pretty luxurious all around.  Normally, the hotel is not such a big deal, but we actually do spend quite a bit of time in the room on this trip, so it helps!  We have a suite, with sitting/living room and office, 1 bedroom and gigantic bathroom.  Lots of space to spread out with all our toys and games!  There are tons of adopting families here, the staff are super helpful, and almost everyone speaks some english (yeay!).  Also, the city just feels fresher than hefei.  Probably because we are pretty close to the ocean, and they get a lot of rain here.  Good and bad in that, but I like it better here for sure. Oh, and our location is awesome.  we are not on "the island", but smack in the middle of tons of restaurants, shops, mall, movie theater, etc.

Cora and I went to her medical appt this morning.  James and Sophie decided not to go, since we were warned it could be a very long wait.  I figured they could spend a few hours exploring on their own, which ended up being a good call.  I hoped as long as our new guide, Richard, could explain to Cora where we were going, and that we'd be back to see Baba and Sophie, that we'd be okay.

I was right, Cora did awesome with the whole thing.  She was happy to go with Richard and I in the car, checking everything out all the way.  We were only at the medical center for about 30 mins tops.  Richard zoomed us through somehow, and Cora was an absolute angel.  She got her eyes checked (passed the test, which was very interesting), had ENT checked out, and a quick body exam.  Oh, and had to have her blood drawn for the TB test. Even with that, not a tear was shed.  She had her lollypop, and was really just taking it all in stride.  Richard was quite impressed, I have to say.  And we even ran into Emily, and she kept it together!  I think she was too distracted to think much of it, so I was thrilled about that.

We came home, and she was all smiles to come back to our room to see James and Sophie.  I am her security blanket, but James is the one she loves to see, and is so quick with a giggle for him.  We all went to subway (pics attached), and then napped, and hit the pool in the afternoon.

It was an awesome day.  We went to dinner with our new BFF's from Atlanta - had pizza and beer, quite delish!  And then did some reading books and practicing writing numbers to wind down for bed.  We're learning Cora loves to write her numbers, seems to be a soothing thing for her, and she's darn good at it. She will count, but oh so quietly, so we can barely hear her.  She still is not talking much - a tiny bit in mandarin, and a few words in english.  Mostly just makes funny noises and faces and laughs.  She is such a character, and really fits right in with our family.  Have I already said how head over heels we all are with her?  Probably, but as each day gets better and less stressful, we get to just focus on getting to know her.  She still wakes up with the scared look, and it shows up here and there throughout the day.  But wow - it's like night and day from just 6 short days ago.

We go to the safari park tomorrow, and that's all that's on the agenda.  We're all looking forward to that!  Cora freaks when she sees a dog on the street (excited, not scared), so I can't imagine what she'll think.

Good night, and to my Anderson clan, have a wonderful day today at Paul's wedding.  A big shout out to my little bro and his beautiful new wife, Kristin.  Love you guys!

Real blog post to go with james' pictures

That was James, he can not type in the dark, don't know what's wrong with him!  Cora is sleeping, Sophie is watching a movie with headphones on, and I am adept at nighttime typing!

Yes we did visit the Lord Bao Temple - pretty cool!  It was a beautiful park, lots of bamboo and trees and a river for the kids to almost all fall in.  Our family and two others went.  The 4th family's little boy is a firecracker, and they struggle bringing him out with the group.  It reminds me that we all have our separate challenges with these kids, as they are all so different.  Another girl from Cora's orphanage is 6 1/2, and you'd swear she was raised by english speaking parents!  She is picking up so much english already, and just talks and talks and talks.  Mostly in Mandarin, but it is truly amazing how quickly these kids adapt.

We had a small scene at breakfast.  Mornings are really hard for Cora, we are learning.  She was teary again when she woke up, and is really disoriented and sad.  Today was not a rush, at least, as we didn't have to be at the bus till 9am.   We found some cartoons to put on, and just had a slow go of it.  Once we got to breakfast, again I think she was looking for her friend, Emily.  When she didn't see her, the tears started flowing.  A super nice waitress came over to help.  She took cora and I, and we walked around, picking out some food for her.  She calmed down, and we got her to eat 2 boiled eggs and some watermelon.  Oh, and another man stopped over before we left, to ask if we needed help.  His english was not great, but he said something to the effect of "it will get better - she will be fine".  So even though people stare ALOT, they do seem to try to be helpful.

Of course once we got with the group, Cora was all smiles.  It was hot hot hot at the temple, but the kids ran all over, and had a great time.

We came back to the hotel, to finalize all the paperwork for her passport.  Everything looked good, so we will get her passport tomorrow, obviously before we fly out to Guangzhou.  I think our flight is at 3:30.

We did a walk to McDonalds again, and then explored the mall a bit.  Found that on the 3rd floor there are TONS of restaurants.  That might have been nice to know 4 days ago!  I am not quite as impressed with the help we are getting here from our guide/translator lady.  I know her focus is getting our paperwork done, but still.  There are some simple things she could have pointed out to us that would have made this leg of the journey easier.  Anyway, we had fun checking everything out.

Came back for a nap, and then swam again in the afternoon.  Cora didn't want to actually go in today; she just wanted to play from the edge, which was fine.  James and I took turns playing with her, and horsing around with sophie, too.  Sophie had a bit of a meltdown herself, in the pool.  She has really been a trooper, and is SO good with Cora.  She's been very involved in the roller coaster of emotions, though, and it's taking a toll on her as well.  She just needed some attention, and was feeling lonely and homesick.  Made me think it was about time for my meltdown.  Ha,ha - not quite yet, I'm sure that will come.  But my back did go into spasms for some reason in the pool, so that was a real joy, and was not helping anything.  I couldn't move for about 10 mins, and I don't really know what that was about?  It's calmed down now, after some pills.  I do keep saying i wake up feeling like I've been run over by a bus - don't know if it's the beds, or just a combo of things.   Our next hotel looks like it has a big lap pool, so I'm hoping I can get some swim workouts in, and maybe that will help.  Or some yoga!

We had an awesome evening, just hanging out and playing in the room.  It seems like once we are settled into the room, where Cora is not on edge about seeing her "friends", or waking up disheveled, she can just relax and enjoy being with us.  We just did a ton of stuff, and she and sophie were giggling about everything.  She said a few more words, and is COMPLETELY warming up to James.  She pretty much thinks everything he does is hilarious.  We had our 3rd night in a row of spaghetti room service, and sophie read her a bedtime story.

She's already got all of us wrapped around her tiny little finger (ooh - which now have adorable pink painted nails, thanks to mama!).  My God, she is just the cutest thing in the world.

We are excited to go to Guangzhou tomorrow, and have 6 nights there.  Wow, that seems like a REALLY long time.  But hopefully it will go quick.  We'll be in the same hotel as our pals, Laura and Sean, who we met in Beijing.  But the rest of the people with us now are staying someone else.  The transition will be hard on Cora, I am sure.  Once again totally confusing.  I really hope Jane (guide) tries to explain to them what is going on.

Our medical appt is on Saturday, and then our consulate appointment on the 6th.  And we fly home on the 8th.

Okay, it will be a big day for me too, tomorrow.  Better get to bed!

Michelle

More pictures

Today we visited Lord Bao's Compound.  Pictures are attached.  Not really any news to report other than today was better than yesterday, which was better than the day before...

Pics from James and Sophie's orphanage visit

Pictures from the Museum on Wednesday, and playing in the room

Wednesday, go to Cora's orphanage - Part 2

Another good day.  She seems to be warming up to us.  As she does, she is revealing herself to be a little stinker, which is perfect.

Sophie and I went to visit Cora Chun Wu's orphanage today.  It was surprising in many ways.  I was surprised to find that the size of the city, BengBu, is immense and modern.

Chun Wu's orphanage was in a large medical facility attached to a nursing home.  Her floor was a little cramped, barely big enough for the 20 or so kids living there.  The kids were all happy and lively, and enjoyed seeing visitors.  We saw her bed (which was large, and in a room with all the other children her age).  We learned their daily routine, which is simple: wake up, eat, activities, eat, nap, activities, eat, sleep.  Every day except Saturday, where they go to the park (which is a nice park with modern and well maintained play equipment, plus a fountain).  And that's about it.  Very structured and predictable.

The teenagers are on the floor above Chun Wu's.  We did not see them.

We met her nannies, who were all very professional.  On the whole, I was very impressed with the orphanage and can understand why Chun Wu is as healthy (mentally and physically) as she is.  When we return to BengBu when Chun Wu is older, I think she will be very grateful to the staff there, just as we are.  Strange as it may seem to us, I can see how she will miss the orphanage.

We also went to the street where she was found.  She was left on a busy street by the train station close to the hospital, so that she would be sure to be found.

We will have to get used to calling her Cora, because it's very comfortable to us to call her by her middle name, Chun Wu...